Hello fellow art lovers! Following our colorful investigation into “What Do Yellow and Purple Make?”, today we’re diving into another exciting color combination. Get ready for a hands-on exploration as we tackle the frequently asked question: What color do red and green make when mixed together?
As your friendly art guide, I’ll demonstrate the answer using a variety of artistic techniques. This is a crucial addition to our expanding color mixing chart, and trust me, the results might just surprise you!
Unveiling the Mystery: Red and Green Create Brown
As clearly illustrated above, the most common result when you mix red and green pigments together is brown. In this digital example, I used Procreate on my iPad, blending red and green with the “Airbrush” tool and then swirling them together using the “Smudge” tool. (Hope you enjoy the easy, cute drawings I added to each color blob!)
What’s truly fascinating is how two vibrant and bright colors combine to produce such a dark and muted tone. The resulting brown you see almost blends into the black background! Let’s delve deeper into further experiments to fuel your creative drawings with color knowledge.
Exploring the Spectrum: More Than Just Brown
Following my previous color mixing explorations, such as “What Does Purple and Green Make?”, I’ve learned that color mixing questions often have more than one answer. Therefore, I wanted to investigate if red and green could yield any other hues beyond brown.
As you can observe in the illustration above (created using the “Marker” brush and the “Smudge” tool with strong finger pressure for deep mixing) and the one below (using the “Acrylic” paintbrush and smudging), the answer is actually more nuanced than simply “brown.” Similar to my findings in “What Does Purple and Orange Make?”, seemingly simple color questions can have a multitude of answers.
A World of Brown Shades
Indeed, mixing green and red produces a wide spectrum of brown shades. This expands the simple answer to include a range of options such as: khaki, tan, nude, skin tones, chocolate, and even mud. (This gives me a great idea for my art prompts list: illustrating the diverse shades of brown!)
If you use a lighter shade of red – pink – you’ll achieve a tan or light brown color, as explored in my article on “what color does pink and green make”. Interestingly, certain combinations of red and green can even create a deep, dark brown that’s so intense, it borders on… black!
The Magic of Complementary Colors: Achieving Black!
Yes, you read that right! While brown is the typical outcome, with the correct shades and proportions, red and green can also produce black. How is this possible? Black is created by mixing all three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue (as shown in my illustration). Green, being a secondary color, is composed of yellow and blue. Therefore, combining red and green essentially incorporates all the primary colors needed to make black.
Another way to understand this is through complementary colors. Red and green are complementary colors, and when mixed in the right proportions, they can neutralize each other to create black. Achieving a true black depends on the pigmentation balance of the red and green shades used, ensuring all primary colors are equally represented. To delve deeper into creating neutral colors like black, gray, brown, and tan, explore my post on “what colors make brown”.
See my experiment below: I layered green and red “Marker” brush strokes, resulting in black. Then, by smudging the color (at the bottom of the heart shape), I reduced the saturation or color intensity, revealing brown.
In Conclusion: What Red and Green Actually Make
So, there you have it! Red and green primarily make brown – a diverse range of browns from light tan to deep chocolate, depending on the specific shades you use. However, under the right conditions, particularly with intense saturation and balanced hues, red and green can also create black.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this colorful journey into color mixing and found some art inspiration along the way. Feel free to suggest the next color combination you’d like me to investigate!
Want to explore more color combinations? Check out “What do Orange and Green Make?”
Lillie Marshall
Author and Artist, Lillie Marshall, National Board Certified Teacher
